Special consideration ensured for Kerala Tourism: K J Alphons

B Dileep Kumar, Chief Editor of Tourism News Live, interacts with K J Alphons, Minister for Tourism at his office in New Delhi

Union Tourism Minister Alphons Kannanthanam said Kerala Tourism, which is in crisis after the floods, will get the best possible assistance from the ministry of tourism. “Kerala will be given special attention in the first Tourism Mart in New Delhi. The tourism sector in Kerala is coming back from the devastating floods in a tremendous speed,” said the minister while talking exclusively to Tourism News Live.

“It is that time of the year where the Neelakurinji has started blooming in Munnar. The flower which blooms once in twelve years is sure going to attract a huge number of tourists to the state. The Tourism Ministry will try all the best measures to ensure that there will be enough foreign tourism arrivals this Neelakurinji season,” said the minister.

Foreign travellers usually plan their vacations much earlier. Most of them who had planned their trips to Kerala, canceled their plans. “Though it is challenging, the ministry will take all the necessary steps to bring back those travellers,” said the minister.

The ministry is also taking initiatives to include Kerala in the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scheme for Central government employees, which allows grant of leave and ticket reimbursement to eligible central government employees. K J Alphons said he has already written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard. The tourism stakeholders in Kerala have requested to include the state in LTC before the Parliamentary Committee that visited Kovalam couple of days back. At present LTC is allowed for employees to travel to North-East and Kashmir. LTC is usually allowed for outstation employees to visit their homeland. It was after the floods in 2014, the ministry has allowed LTC to Kashmir for tourism purposes. The tourism fraternity in Kerala is expecting a similar scheme to help revive the tourism sector of Kerala after the floods.